Five Degrees

Content Summary: Meal Pal

It was sweltering outside the car, and June was getting darker. The summer insects were hiding in the greenery and singing.

After Shi Yun got out of the car, her body was covered in a thin layer of sweat immediately. She closed the car door, and walked slowly into the night.

The headlights behind her never disappeared; her figure was cast on the road, and the light and shadow danced. Shi Yun never looked back and kept walking forward.

She ran into Shi Yuan at the bottom floor of the dormitory. The one who was standing in front of her, was probably her new boyfriend. She saw Shi Yun, who had returned, looked at her and looked behind her curiously.

It was a pity that it was difficult to see clearly the car Shi Yun got off at night.

After the two greeted each other, Shi Yun walked straight into the dormitory.

Seeing the figure outside the front windshield who hadn’t looked back disappear from his sight, Wei Congying also turned the car and left. The sound of the vehicle engine seemed to say, ‘I’m expensive’.

When Shi Yun returned to the dormitory, she saw that Shi Yuan had made a mess of the dormitory. On the ground were her belongings and some luggage that she planned to take home.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Fbl bye y pzktbv scplppkhl-nsxrwzpkhl ekpsaela vldeldnu, cwv pbl eked’v oydv vs blzr Fbk Zwyd vkeu wr, ps pbl fwpv oldv vs oypb wr.
Gqvla vyjkdt y cyvb, pbl qlzv alzymle yde vbl yka nsdekvksdla oyp osajkdt vs rwxr swv nsze yka. Fbl qswde vbyv vbl vball cssjp aliwlpvle cu vbl fwdksa sd vbl vyczl bye dsv clld vyjld yoyu.

Ekrkdt bla byka okvb y vsolz, Fbk Zwd vssj swv bla xsckzl rbsdl qasx bla cyt, yde oydvle vs qkde vbl pnbssz tkaz obs bye rakhyvlzu xlppytle bla sd ElUbyv ycswv cwukdt vbl cssjp.

Uzknjkdt sd vbl zkpv, vbl xspv alnldv xlppytl oyp qasx Elk Usdtukdt.

[Elk Usdtukdt]: Zsw yal ps nawlz, usw esd’v lhld zssj cynj.
G pzktbvzu alrasynbqwz osaekdt.

Fbk Zwd nwv swv qasx vbl nbyv kdvlaqynl okvb bkx, yde nsdvkdwle vs plyanb qsa vbl fwdksa’p ekyzstwl csm.

Jlqsal bla xlppytl oyp pldv swv, pbl blyae vbl pswde sq vbl esaxkvsau essa srldkdt.
Fbk Zwyd oyp cynj.

Gp pssd yp Fbk Zwyd ldvlale vbl assx, pbl pyo Fbk Zwd’p rspv-pbsola yrrlyaydnl. Mbl esaxkvsau pxlzzle sq qaytaydv pbsola tlz.

Fbk Zwd rknjle wr vbl cssj sd vbl vyczl: “Pked’v vbl fwdksa nsxl vs rknj kv wr?”

Shi Yuan had a shopping bag hanging from her wrist, and closed the door with her foot: “She didn’t come.”

Shi Yun continued with sending the message to the junior who wanted to buy the books, Shi Yuan walked into the house, and stopped when she was passing by Shi Yun .

Their dormitory had a bed and desk layout, and next to the desk was a personal wardrobe and stairs.

Shi Yuan leaned against Shi Yun’s closet door, with a gossipy expression on her face: “Who was the person who sent you back today?”

Shi Yun didn’t want to answer her question, so she said, ‘No one,’ and went to open the closet door, signaling her to go away. Seeing Shi Yun’s reluctance to answer, Shi Yuan flattened her lips and said, “The man’s car was quite expensive.”

Shi Yun didn’t answer her question, but instead asked, “Are you going home tomorrow? Then hurry up. Pack your things.”

She and Shi Yuan could not be considered good friends, they didn’t meet when they were undergraduates, and after graduation, the dormitories were redistributed. The first dormitory had four people and three majors, Shi Yuan naturally got closer to Shi Yun who was in the same major as her.

Seeing that she couldn’t get anything out of Shi Yun, Shi Yuan ate her ice cream before washing.

–

There would be a class meeting the next day, and after the class meeting, they would be able to go on summer vacation.

They had a class meeting at 9:30 a.m., Shi Yuan got up early and started to pack her luggage. Shi Yun was woken up by the packing noises, and Shi Yuan asked to borrow a storage bag for her quilt and a vacuum sealer.

After Shi Yun found them from the closet and handed them to her, she took her toiletries with her to wash up.

She took a leisurely shower, then poured herself a cup of oatmeal. While eating breakfast, she watched the morning news.

Shi Yuan sat on the compressed quilt, she was a little tired from tidying up. Seeing Shi Yun’s leisurely appearance, she asked her, “Aren’t you going to pack your things?”

Shi Yun dug into the oatmeal with a spoon, her focus completely on the news: “Yeah.”

Shi Yuan asked while tidying up: “Are you not going back home again this summer vacation?”

Shi Yun had only been home a handful of times in the past few years. She was obviously a native of the capital, but she didn’t go home as often as her roommates from out of town, and she seldom called home.

She was actually a family lover, and she didn’t yearn for the outside world so much.
Only, her mother passed away in a car accident, and she had no need to go home.

After the class meeting, Shi Yuan left while dragging her suitcase.

Shi Yun was the only one left in the dormitory, but she didn’t feel lonely. Maybe it was because she didn’t interact much with her roommates, so it felt nice to enjoy her time in the dormitory alone.

There was not a long holiday this summer, but Shi Yun was either in the library or in the dormitory.

The dormitory aunties in charge took turns, and every time they saw that Shi Yun hadn’t left for the summer vacation, they would ask, “Little girl, aren’t you going back during summer vacation?”

Her answer remained the same, just one word: “Hm.”

Just as she was about to drown in documents, a message from Wei Congying came.
Asking her if she wanted to eat Japanese food.

–

When he sent Shi Yun the text message, asking if she wanted to eat Japanese food, he was at the repair shop.

Wei Congying spent the whole afternoon here today, but he didn’t put in much effort. After communicating with the technician, he lazily leaned on the sofa in the garage, with the smell of engine oil hovering at the tip of his nose.

Not far away, the tinkling sound of repairs in progress came and went, and a person in an operation suit in front of the operating table looked at the finished product and let out a long sigh of relief.

The sleeveless vest under the work suit was already drenched with sweat.

Cheng Ge exhausted his energy rapidly due to the intense concentration and the sweltering heat. His goggles fogged up, and even turning on the air conditioner didn’t help much.

After installing the tilt sensor and ———¹Frankly, I haven’t got the slightest inkling what this could be and why it would be censored. ¯_(ツ)_/¯, Cheng Ge called Wei Congying over: “Done.”

He couldn’t wait to take off his sweaty work clothes as he spoke.

Wei Congying on the sofa got up and looked at the car in front of Cheng Ge.

Many of the parts on it were dismantled from another wrecked car of his. Cheng Ge said to him while taking off his work clothes: “These parts can save you this much.”

His hands covered in engine oil looked a little dirty, Wei Congying looked at the number he gestured out with his hands, he stood beside the motorcycle, and squeezed the clutch and front brake casually.
Hearing Cheng Ge’s words, he just smiled sarcastically, the cost of transporting the car back was almost the same price.

As he took off his operating clothes, Wei Congying could smell sweat. He only frowned, turned his head, and held his breath: “Okay, that’s it. I’ll go first.”

He walked to the sofa and picked up his phone. With his back to Cheng Ge, Wei Congying put his finger under his nose, but he didn’t know that this action was seen by the person who was undressing behind him.

Wei Congying picked up his phone and walked towards the door. Before leaving, he said, “Take a look at the costs. After you figure it out, send me a WeChat message. I’ll be leaving first.”

When he came out of the repair shop, it was already dark outside.

His phone rang before he reached the parking lot. It was a reply from Shi Yun after he asked her if she wanted to eat Japanese food.

She didn’t say no.
She also asked him the exact time.

Wei Congying stood where he was and replied to her message, the July summer in the capital was so hot that one would feel a tightness in their chest and shortness of breath.

He saw a taxi parked at the gate of the repair shop, and a girl got out of the car with a lunch box in her hand. After walking towards him, her eyes paused on him for a few seconds. When their eyes met, the person gave him a cold look, and without stopping, walked straight towards the repair shop.

Wei Congying remembered, she seemed to be Cheng Ge’s girlfriend.

–

Shi Yun passed over the skirt she wore the last time he saw her, and replaced it with a new set including accessories.

There was still enough time.

She took out Wei Congying’s coat from the closet, found another paper bag, folded the coat and put it inside.

The phone on the table rang.
He arrived earlier than the appointed time.

This time, he also passed over the last car and changed to another one.

The three-pointed star emblem on the front end was particularly conspicuous.

Sunlight fell through the gaps between the clouds, and the cats in the school slept under the shade of the trees, seemingly unafraid of the chirping of cicadas.

He was a little surprised when he saw the paper bag in Shi Yun’s hand. He had forgotten about the coat. He put the paper bag in the back seat, waited for Shi Yun to fasten her seat belt before starting the car.

While waiting for Shi Yun, Wei Congying looked at the dormitory balconies, nothing was hanging outside to dry.
It was already summer vacation, and there were no students except the school staff.

“Aren’t you going home during the summer vacation?” Wei Congying remembered that last time she said that she had finished her exams, “The academic advisor isn’t giving you a break?”

Shi Yun: “No, I just don’t want to go back.”

Wei Congying didn’t say anything after listening. Neither was he a person who wanted to live with his parents.

When he reached the traffic light intersection, he was lucky enough to catch a green light. Shi Yun saw the Japanese cuisine store leaflet that was stuffed beside the passenger door like before.

The creases that she made on it while bored were still on it as well.

He was driving the car, looking out the front: “It’s good if you don’t go back, you can continue to have dinner with me during summer vacation.”

Shi Yun took out the leaflet of the Japanese cuisine store, looked at the words on the leaflet, she read all the words on it but none of them processed: “Are you short of a meal pal?”

He held the steering wheel, slowed down slowly because of the countdown for the green light visible at the intersection ahead, and adjusted the gear: “Short, do you want to accompany me?”

Wei Congying deliberately lengthened the sound of the word ‘short’, and while the car was stopped, he turned to look at the passenger seat, waiting for her answer.

Shi Yun’s answer was ambiguous, neither agreeing nor refusing.

But Wei Congying knew that next time he invited her out for dinner, she would come.

One was his self-confidence, and the other was the mood that Shi Yun didn’t show but couldn’t hide.

He was convinced that Shi Yun liked him.

–

The Japanese cuisine store was in the commercial district from last time.

After summer vacation started, it seemed that there were more cars on the street.

When they arrived at the Japanese cuisine store, there were already people queuing up at the entrance of the Japanese cuisine store.

From afar, Shi Yun saw a familiar figure among the dozen or so people.

It was He Sui.

Next to him stood a girl who was about the same age as them, wearing a chiffon dress and canvas shoes.

The girl next door.

It was indeed the type that he had always liked.

The two of them didn’t seem to be afraid of the heat, arm in arm, whispering intimately.

After Wei Congying got out of the car, he went around the front of the car and walked to the side of Shi Yun who was standing there in a daze. Following her gaze, he could only see the queue in front of the Japanese cuisine store.

Seeing Shi Yun’s uneasy expression, Wei Congying asked tentatively, “You don’t want to eat?”

She made a noise of agreement.
The excuse Shi Yun made was that there were too many people queuing up and that she forgot this restaurant had a rule of taking off shoes. Today, she had worn two randomly collected mismatched colored socks.

The excuses were far-fetched, and a little clumsy.

But Wei Congying’s self-righteousness was magnified by the preconceived idea of ​​putting himself in the position of a hunter early on. He thought that everything he had seen about Shi Yun’s lies was his cleverness.

They changed the place, but Wei Congying didn’t care.

The two went to a Cantonese restaurant instead.

Wei Congying seemed to be a little busy when eating. The phone kept ringing, one was Lin Fang, asking if he wanted to play together at night, and the other was the repair shop, saying that the car was ready for a test run.

He refused them both, saying that he had a date today.

After Shi Yun sat across from her and watched him perfunctorily hang up the two people’s phone calls, she fiddled with the roast goose on the plate with a fork until the goose’s own oil smeared the entire surface of the plate.

Wei Congying put down his mobile phone, saw her ‘dish painting’, and used the serving chopsticks to pick up another dish for her: “One was my friend who has something to do with me, and the other was an employee of the repair shop. The repairs and modifications for my car were all done there. He just informed me that I can go for a test run.”

Shi Yun thought it was the car he drove before, and didn’t think much about it: “Did some part of it break?”
Not much time had passed since their last meeting. Shi Yun didn’t think there was anything wrong with the car at the time either, and thought it was just a small bump.

After she asked, Wei Congying did not speak immediately.

Shi Yun picked up the food he had given her with a fork. She had just put it in her mouth and was not chewing carefully. He sat across the dining table. He folded the wet towel in his hand, held her wrist across the not-so-wide table, turned her arm gently, and wiped off the sauce which had at some point appeared without her knowledge with the corner of the wet towel.

“Interested? If you are free tomorrow, do you want to go and have a look?”

The author has something to say:

Highlight the socks!! Will test later!!!

---

Translator Note:

I don’t know how relevant that author note is but I’m including it anyways.

Join the discord to chat with other readers or let me know of any mistakes!

Happy New Year Eve! ╰( ^ ㅂ ^)╯